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IN THE NETHERLANDS. lix
purity of colour, and breadth of execution, which in his latest works
betrays a handling of the brush so uncompromising that drawing is
almost lost in a maze of colour-tone, are distinguishing character-
istics of Frans Hals, who, besides the ‘Regent-pieces’ referred to,
was the author of numerous portraits; and he has immortalised such
popular figures as the ‘Rommelpott-players’, ‘The tipsy old wife,
Hille Bobbe’, ‘The jolly shoemaker, Jan Barentz’, ready either for
a drinking bout or for service in the fleet with Admiral Tromp.
His best known pupils are Adrian Brouwer (b. at Oudenarde,
1605; d. at Antwerp, 1638), and Adrian van Ostade (b. at Haarlem,
4610; died there, 1685). As we do not possess more correct bio-
graphical data concerning the former of these, we must accept as true
the stories told of him and his fellows by authors of the 18th century.
He is his master’s most formidable rival in the naive conception of
national character, as well as in mere technical skill; and had he
lived long enough to mature his natural powers, he must have borne
away the palm now conceded to Adrian Ostade. In the earlier efforts
of Adrian yan Ostade, we are reminded of Brouwer; it was after the
year 1640, or thereabouts, when the influence of Rembrandt was
in the ascendant with him, that he first displayed those technical
ities and artistic predilections which have made him a fayour-~
ite with the most fastidious connoisseurs. Grace and beauty are attri-
putes which the forms crowded into his cottage-interiors or animating
his court-yard scenes certainly do not pos but they alwaysabound
in lusty life, characteristic and appropriate, whether playing cards,
intent upon the enjoyment of pipe and glass, or dancing accompanied
by the ever-present fiddler; and with such marvellous effect is colour
accentuat so complete is his mastery of chiaroscuro, that nearly
every picture may be said to provide a new ‘feast for the eye’.
With Ostade are connected his brother, Isaac van Ostade(1620-49),
Cornelis Bega (1620-64), and Cornelis Dusart (1660-1704).
And thus we are brought to the almost innumerable throng of
GsyreEParmntErs, who have imparted to Dutch art its peculiarly dis-
tinctive attributes, and have secured its greatest triumphs. It
would be difficult to distinguish amongst the genre painters of
Holland various degrees of excellence, inasmuch as each in his
vective, and, as a rule, contracted sphere, has asserted an in-
disputable supremacy. It is unfortunate that the greater number
of their works have been transferred to foreign galleries, and are
rarely to be met with in Dutch collections, so that Holland is no
longer exclusively the place where the genre and landscape-paint-
ers of the Netherlands can be studied. It must suffice, therefore,
to mention the most conspicuous names.
The genre painters are usually divided into several groups, ac-
cording to the subjects which they make peculiarly their own; pic-
tures, for example, belong to the higher or lower genre as they set
before us the more refined or coarser aspects of social life, the world
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